A Fair Fight
by Woodz
Summary: Two men struggle to match up to the Controller's power and influence, they alone must face it


Discaimer: I don't own AC or any of the games, characters in it, the character sin this story are original to me but I apologise if any of the names corrospond to any of the names in any of the AC games.  
  
This is my first fan-fic so I could really use reviews, flame are very welcome but please make them specific to what part (or even all) of the fic you don't life instead of just sending 'THIS F**KING SUX' My thanks, hope you enjoy.  
  
A Fair Fight  
  
A young man, stared vividly at the scene affront, arms crossed facing the ground slightly. Dozens upon dozens of metallic corpses littered the Greenfield. Remnants of swings, benches and frames could still be seen through the tonnes of shrapnel and hundred of telltale craters of exploding MT's. Behind him stood his opposite, rugged his face still a smile could be seen. Both men stank of blood and the death that has come from it.  
  
"I really hope a day like this doesn't come by again, It's sick"  
  
The man behind him placed a hand upon his shoulder to comfort him and shook his head.  
  
"It will, if we're going to destroy the controller's forces again we're going to have to, we may well be amongst the people who didn't make it"  
  
He turned round to walk off, pulling with his hand on his shoulder slightly before he let go.  
  
"Lets get out of here, best not liger here for too long"  
  
He walked on, closely followed by the young man, heading towards their AC's. The young man reached his first and looked up, admiring his work. The AC gleamed in a brilliant crimson blue attached on it's left arm a rather large triangular device with an wide opening at the end, engraved on the side was the distinctive 'Moon-Light', in its right a Machine-Gun of somewhat, around the same size of the Moonlight, the red paint on the gun has been incinerated by bazooka fire, deep wounds flared up on the gun, engraved in the same way as the Moonlight were the code 'MG-1000'. The arms themselves were an odd shape, the lower part of the arm was larger then the upper part, most of the armour surrounding the arm had been blown off leaving the delicate wiring exposed, some had actually been cut. The legs are reverse jointed, seemed to have hooves with the still visible symbol 'SOLID', these too had taken a beating, above these was the core, light red in colour it was the centre piece of the AC, 2 Massive cannons rested upon the shoulders, a 16 ammo regenerating laser Exceed Orbit launcher. On its back were a 30% ammo addition and the 10-lock Missile launcher. The head looked very odd in a triangular shape, clearly engraved on it was the number '002'. Stood proudly, quiet.  
  
"Should I leave my machine gun here? It's out of ammo, might be risky taking it back, my AC's has pretty much had it"  
  
"Nah it'll be fine just take it easy on the way back Syjah" His friend's AC was gold in colour, quite a bit larger then Syjah's. In its right hand clutched the famous Karasawa an in his left clutched a 50 shot Howitzer the legs were quite bulky and core was much the same, it had a small antimissile gun at the tip of the core, the core itself was quite a bit larger then Syjah's, the head was also bigger. On the back of the core held a grenade launcher and a 30% ammo addition. The arms were rather bulky. On the whole the AC was only lightly damaged, mainly in the arm areas where the arms had been used to protect the core.  
  
Syjah simply nodded and climbed retractable pole into the core as did his partner respectively.  
  
"Welcome Syjah", his AC's systems spoke to him in monotone, it was capable of listening to short orders but not complicated strategies.  
  
"Thanks, start up the combat systems and run me a damage check", Syjah simply ordered.  
  
"Systems activated", the familiar whir of his fusion reactor starting up started with odd faint electrical sparks can be heard outside, the dark scope of the head jolted with energy and quickly shone red, starting to scan the area affront.  
  
"Extreme damage to right arm detected, some sensors offline, damage to electrical components, MG-1000 unusable. Moderate damage to left arm, Moonlight usable. Core has sustained moderate damage, left EO unusable right EO undamaged. Head Undamaged," The head briefly stated.  
  
Syjah grabbed a hold of him throttle control and pushed it right to the limit, the boosters whirred with energy, the AC quickly accelerated Past 300 MPH northward, closely followed by his companion, Diago.  
  
An hour later both AC's landed at the Ravens Nest at their respective garages. When Syjah climbed out of his cockpit the usual mechanics ambushed him. The boss approached him.  
  
"Boy your AC is a wreck! What have you been doing in it!" He said softly  
  
"Friggin controller forces, sent like 50 MT's on the two of us, I hate fighting unmanned forces, if I was to defeated by them I could never live with he shame." The boss simply nodded once and looked up at the unrecognisable AC next to him. Syjah looked at the ground and sighed, "How much do you reckon?"  
  
"I think I can fix this baby for fifty thousand credits." He pulled out a small pad with a small keyboard attached, Syjah quickly snatched it off him keyed in the money and details before swiftly swiping his card through the scanner.  
  
"When do you reckon it'll be fixed?"  
  
"Give it a few hours bruv, BUT TAKE CARE OF IT NEXT TIME!" Syjah couldn't help but smile and simply looked up at his AC, took him 3 weeks to finally build it and only ten to turn it into a mangled wreck. "We'll in the meantime, go home and take a shower, you reek"  
  
Syjah laughed and walk off towards to terminal, he knew Diago would be there already, he's always the first one out, on his way he thought about the future.  
  
Syjah's POV: 'Distroying the controller will change the world as we know it, but will it be better... No controller will mean the end of all wars, no Ravens, no battles and guns, just peace. Can I live with that, my hands are stained with blood, are they still clean enough to be accepted into THAT society? Maybe the end of the controller should spell the end of me, I have spent my whole life battle against what seemed impossible, it's my purpose'  
  
Normal POV:  
  
A tear dripped from Syjah's right eye, swiftly wiped away before he could make out the distinctive outline of his partner Diago.  
  
"What's eating you bruv, you look like shit"  
  
"Nothing, I just need a nap"  
  
"Yer and from the smell of it, you could use a good wash too"  
  
"DIAGO!!! I HAVE ALREADY BEEN TOLD!"  
  
"Alright calm it, geez"  
  
Diago hmphed and began to make way to the elevator, followed by his side Syjah. The corridor was a half-cylinder shape, lighted by blue neon tubes which were place at the centre-top and on both bottom edges of the corridor, on both sides were hundred of shops, half of which were part suppliers from all sorts of different companies, most just sold rubbish the best stores were at the end of the corridor, which still sold rubbish except for the common optional parts.  
  
"Hey Diago I'm just going to check out this shop before I go home, you can go on if you want."  
  
"Nah I'll come don't worry yourself there, what you looking for?"  
  
"Something that can increase the rate of fire on my machine gun, fink they exist?"  
  
"Perhaps, I did see a really odd one the other day, extremely rare"  
  
"Oh, think the shop will have it in their database?"  
  
Syjah started to walk inside the shop and immediately made his way to one of the computers, the shop was full of people from different backgrounds but most were amateur Ravens. There were no stacks or shelves; all things bought this age were done by keyboard and card. Syjah arrived at the computer while Diago took the one next to him, before he could key anything in he heard someone call him.  
  
"Hey you!" A rather young voice called, Syjah turned to face the guy, he was rather built with a clean-shaven beard and very short hair.  
  
"Hey your Syjah right? Ranked B-6 in the arena"  
  
"Yah that's me, what do you want?"  
  
Diago also turned round to face the man and crossed his arms. The man hesitated, before he spoke.  
  
"Well I was going to send you a mail but I'd might as well tell you here, I'm ranked B-8 I was wondering if you wanted to battle me in the arena sometime soon?" The man was polite and spoke rather quickly, Syjah crossed his arms and thought.  
  
"If I lose, I drop 2 places and lose ten thousand credits, what do you think I'm going to say?"  
  
The other man was quick to reply.  
  
"If you win I can get you your battle with the Rank B-5 Raven you been waiting so long to battle, he's my brother"  
  
"Your Gwain Gardener?"  
  
"That's me, my bro is Ricky Gardener"  
  
Gwain extended his hand halfway between himself and Syjah.  
  
"Deal?"  
  
Syjah was about to take it when Diago quickly dropped in.  
  
"Wait, can we make this two on two?  
  
"Who are you??" Gwain asked, baffled.  
  
"I'm Diago, ranked B-4, how about if you win you advance my friend Syjah's rank and Ricky can take mine, if you lose then my buddy here can take Ricky's" He announced, looking at Syjah. "Deal?"  
  
"Deal, tomorrow morning?" Gwain smiled before shaking his hand before returning to the computer he was at earlier. Syjah hit him in the shoulder.  
  
"You put an awful lot at stake! What makes you so sure we're going to win?!" Syjah yelled in panic.  
  
"Calm down, calm down look over here at the screen"  
  
Diago pointed at an optional part he selected before explaining what it does.  
  
"Here's that rare part I was talking about, it's called an OP-INTENSIFY, it allows you to fly for practically forever at twice the boosters regular speed, can counter the force of back mounted cannons without even kneeling, extends your blade twofold and various other things, it can nearly double the power of your ac."  
  
"SHIT! BUY IT NOW!" Diago said hysterically  
  
"Can't, only ten in existence, nine of them are in possession of ravens and the last one is in possession of Crest. If you read here they're researching into the part trying to copy the abilities it possesses so far they have had little success its so advanced."  
  
"Who made them in the first place? Why can't we buy it off them."  
  
"The controller created them."  
  
Syjah grew silent and disappointed before Diago let him in on the good news.  
  
"But Crest HAS had some success in working out the abilities of the booster enhancement program implanted into the OP-INTENSIFY part and they have managed to create a separate OP part from the research, it reduces your boost consumption by half and increases the power by ten percent, it's called the OP-1/INT, do you want it?"  
  
"Go on then"  
  
Diago quickly keyed in the order and checked the price and option slots it takes, smelling something strange during it.  
  
"It's eighty thousand credits and will use up seven of your slots"  
  
"A bit pricey but I can handle it" Syjah handed him his card before Diago swiftly swiped it through the sensor.  
  
"I'll get myself one of these as well," Diago keyed in a few characters before swiping his own card. "Hey have you had a shower lately?"  
  
"Shut up I'm just REALLY tired, I just wanna get home and prepare the match tomorrow."  
  
Syjah exited the shop, recalling his latest Arena battle in vivid detail.  
  
Flashback 'Today we're presenting another Two on Two battle, between challengers Team Dark Vanquish and defenders Team Solemn Death!! Enter Team Dark Vanquish!' The audience surrounding the arena chanted 'Dark Vanquish!!' The massive door to entry opened slowly revealing 2 AC's, one Red and one Gold, both slowly walked to the edge of the Arena. Syjah in his AC walked over to his starting platform, Diago did the same. "What battleground should we take?" asked Diago  
  
"Lets just take the old arena I don't want anything fancy."  
  
Diago relayed the message to the command centre and they immediately responded.  
  
'Team Dark Vanquish has chosen to fight in the old arena battle ground' The ground shook and 6 Hexagonal pillars raised out of the ground violently, the two AC's stood and gawked at the height of the pillars.  
  
'Now enter Team Solemn Death!' The audience did the same, chanting 'Solemn Dread!' repeatedly, though this time it was much louder then for Team Dark Vanquish. Then another doors exactly the same, as before opened to reveal another two AC's, both were white. Solemn Death leader, Jake, was on a lightweight biped with only an 800 shot Machine gun and Moonlight blade as weapons, it had a very small core and very skinny arms, the head looked almost flat. Solemn Death leader's partner, Saroon, had the exact same frame as Syjah but its right arm weapon was a missile launcher with the HALBERD blade in its left, on its back was the dual missile launcher that took up both hard- points on its back. On the side of both arms was the relation missile launcher.  
  
'Team Dark Vanquish ready!'  
  
Syjah simply ignited his Moonlight blade and shut it off, Diago charged his Karasawa, the crowd cheered loudly.  
  
'Team Solemn Death ready!'  
  
The Jake raised his machine gun and Saroon opened its dual missile launchers. The audience exploded in cheers at that.  
  
'Ready! Battle!!!!!'  
  
Jake's AC immediately overboosted towards Syjah, Jake came in first with a Moonlight blade strike, it was blocked by Syjah's own Moonlight blade, Syjah jumped and activated his boosters, chased by a hail of bullets, Syjah fired his own machine gun at Jake and activated his EO's which automatically fired massive energy blasts at Jake. Jake retreated away from Syjah's attack and hid behind one of the pillars.  
  
Meanwhile Saroon and Diago were fighting more at range, Saroon launched a salvo of 4 missiles followed by another 4 from his relation missile launcher. Diago looked at the swarm of missiles rapidly near him and quickly activated his overboosted towards Saroon's left, 5 of the missiles narrowly misses while 2 hit his left, pieces of red-hot armour blew off, and 1 missile managed to find the Howitzer in Diago's left hand, lightly damaging it. Diago quickly retaliated with 3 Karasawa shots, all 3 managed to hit their target, all 3 hit the Halberd, causing it to explode.  
  
"Grrrr blast you" Saroon muttered before sending another salvo of eight missiles at Diago.  
  
Diago was smarter this time and boosted behind one of arena's pillars, Diago waited for the missiles to hit the pillar and took a second to rest. He heard the missiles explode and readied to come out from behind the pillar  
  
'I see you'  
  
'Huh' Diago muttered before taking eight missiles from above, six impacted his left arm and 2 impacted the head. 'Warning left arm critically damaged, advise to jettison.' Saroon sent another Salvo of 8 missiles, this time using his right arm missile launcher, Diago growled before hitting his overboost, the missiles chased and exploded in the plasma created by Diago's overboost. Diago shut off the overboost then turned his AC to face Saroon. He flicked 2 blue switched in his cockpit and got a confirmation message.  
  
'Left arm jettison activated'  
  
The connection hinges and wiring separated the mangled arm from the core and it fell to the ground in a lifeless heap.  
  
"I see your having fun" Diago muttered  
  
Saroon lifted his right arm and started locking again with his missile launcher Diago mimicked him with his Karasawa and fired a super powered blue plasma shot into Saroon's core, causing to whince, the back force of the Karasawa nearly pushed it right out of Diago's AC's hand.  
  
'Only as much as you are'  
  
Meanwhile Syjah was trying to rid himself of Jake, he couldn't keep up with his speed and only his EO was getting off decent shots. Jake boosted behind him and fired 10 machine gun rounds into Syjah's EO's. 'Right Exceed Orbit heavily damaged, attempting to reroute all Exceed Orbit energy to the Left Orbit pod, advise to retreat right EO'  
  
Syjah grumbled, retracted his EO and boosted forward, strifing left to right to avoid Jake's machine gun onslaught. Syjah turned then fired his machine gun, none of the shots connected for Jake was already boosting in the air raining machine gun shots towards Syjah. Syjah responded by back boosting away from him firing his MG in unison with Jake. Syjah managed to connect around twenty shots to Jake's MG while Jake connect some of his own to the upper part of Syjah's right arm. Jake cut off his boosters noting his energy gauge running low and landed with a thud. Jake ran a quick check of his systems. 'MG-800 unusable, advise to jettison. Zero damage to the rest of the AC, recommend laser blade combat.'  
  
Jake flicked a blue switch inside his cockpit and his AC promptly dropped the MG-800, Jake then ignited his blade while Syjah ran his own checks. 'Damage to right arm sensors and mobility valves, Moderate damage to core and head.' Syjah thought, 'Right arm useless now, but I have always enjoyed fighting by the blade.' With that Syjah flicked 3 blue switched, promptly jettisoning his MG-1000, missile launcher and the 30% Ammo addition, soon he ignited his own blade as Jake did and boosted towards Jake. Jake smiled and hit his overboost, after the brief charge up his core exploded, propelling him towards Syjah. 'Gyaaaah!!!!!!!!!!' 'Eahhhhhhhh!!!!!!' Moonlight's swung to clash each other in a brilliant blue light show, sounds of pure energy swept through the arena as Spectators watched in awe..  
  
Saroon launched his last volley of eight missiles towards Diago, Diago was smarter this time and used the light of the missiles to mask a Karasawa shot and a Howitzer shot into Saroon's Right arm missile launcher, obliterating it before boosting to the left to dodge, Saroon was forces back by the explosion and quickly reopened his Dual Back Missile launchers and jettisoned his relation missile extensions. Diago managed to avoid four of the missiles but the other four struck his right leg, ceasing it up.  
  
Minor damage sustained to core part "Hnnn", Diago's AC collapsed to its knee's but didn't fall completely as Diago quickly used the Massive Karasawa as a resting support and raised his Howitzer to fire at Saroon.  
  
'I can't lose' Diago muttered himself, gripping his throttle control and readying his finger on his Overboost trigger He fired his Howitzer, Saroon jumped and launched 2 volleys of 4 missiles towards Diago's crippled AC, they neared quickly.  
  
'Ready.' Diago calmed.  
  
'Now!' Diago jammed his throttle control and clicked his Overboost control moments before impact, his AC jetted forward nearing the sound barrier, the force nearly caused Diago to pass out as he was jammed against his restraint, the AC vibrated wildly as missiles flew by till one impacted his left leg. The AC at this lost control and rolled madly to a grinding halt on its left side.  
  
"DIAGO! ARE YOU OK????" Screamed Syjah as he struggled to parry off Jake's Moonlight and boosted towards Diago's AC.  
  
"You okay bruv?"  
  
"I'm fucked man, you must ignore me tho" Diago said softly and sighed, using what was left of his left arm he rolled the ac onto it's back.  
  
"GO!"  
  
Syjah ignited his blade and turned staring at his two opponents close up on him, Syjah trembled at the odds.  
  
"This is the part where we take you apart in a hopeless bout, you ready?" calmed Jake, pointing his unignited moonlight towards Syjah. Saroon jettisoned his empty missile back unit and ignited his own blade. The Halberd wasn't very wide but was extremely long, almost twice as long as Syjah and Jake's.  
  
Both activated their over boost and flew towards Syjah, Syjah jumped, if he had not his AC's whole top section would have been decimated. Syjah spun and boosted after Jake who was still recovering from his overboost. Jake turned to face Syjah's blade slashing down at him fast, Jake parried and side stepped attacking Syjah with an up slash. Syjah blocked with his blade facing straight towards Jake's core and stabbed with his blade, Jake quickly boosted back and attacked again this time with a horizontal slash, unfortunately for him Syjah jumped and attacked with a down slash, severing his left arm off then slicing at his leg's, taking the bottom half of both off, causing him to collapse in a heap, Jake struggled to lift himself up with what was left of his right arm coming face to face with Syjah's ignited blade  
  
"Game over Jake"  
  
"Not yet"  
  
"Huh?" Was all Syjah could say before being struck from behind by Saroon's Halberd, it hit his left arm but didn't destroy it.  
  
"Eurgh! How could I forget" When Syjah boosted forward and ran a damage check on his left arm.  
  
'Left arm armour is destroyed, damage to power supply, power supply down my 50%'  
  
Syjah ignited his Moonlight but it only appeared half as bright, Saroon launched a savage attack on Syjah, Syjah tried to block only to see his left arm cut off before it moved. Saroon pointed his halberd at Syjah's head. Syjah rana frantic check on his AC and almost lost hope when his systems reported the last good thing to come from this battle.  
  
'Left Exceed Orbit now fully recharged, eight shots usable'  
  
Syjah wasted no time and smashed the Exceed Orbit activation switch causing a giant pod to float and fire giant plasma shots into Saroon's core and left arm.  
  
'Left arm destroyed, generator ceasing energy.. diminishing .. AC... Shutting Dowwwnnn'  
  
The crimson red eye of Saroon's AC died down to black before collapsing to the ground on its back, Syjah sighed deeply and flashed his boosters in a sign of victory.  
  
'We'll we have a winner!!! Team Dark Vanquish claims victory!!!'  
  
The audience roared deafening chant's 'Dark Vanquish!' repeatedly as Syjah climbed out what's left of his AC down the retractable ladder and headed toward Diago who was also climbing out.  
  
"Whew, that was close" Diago nodded, "This is how we're going to be like when we fight the last line of controller forces, IF we get that far that is," Diago gave a saddened look. "We better keep training we've got a minimum of 4 matches to go before we're top ranked and they've going to be a world harder then this. Syjah nodded and walked towards the Recovery Area of the Ravens Nest.  
  
Thanks for staying awake for my first fan-fic, I put a good couple of hours into this so please don't flame me too much ;) The story line hasn't got much character yet, I know I'll try my best to work on it, please give me a few tips in reviews though, this is meant to be a story where the two want to destroy the controller but reviews please give me a few twists I can add in, perhaps improvements to the presentation. My thanks Shaun P.S I will TRY and include some romance in upcoming chapters but I warn yah, I am not good at fluffy fics, find it hard enuf to dream of them :S. E-Mail & MSN Shaundwm@hotmail.com if you wish to contact me. 


End file.
